20 April 2011

Cap Martin has many incredible villas, one of which is Villa Cypris which was owned by Olympe Hériot, owner of the Grands Magasins du Louvre in Paris. Emile Zola's famous novel 'Au bonheur des dames' was based on the daily life of a department store at the end of the 19th century and was inspired by Heriot's department store.

There is a long staircase that runs from the villa to a footbridge that spans the Promenade le Corbusier. You find this arcaded gallery, a kind of cloister on stilts, overlooking the sea. You can see the bridge in the smaller photo with one of my dogs, Beau, passing underneath.